Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Netherlands January 2017

Ioniq Electric: Surprise Leader

"...Upside down..."

"Boy youIncentives turn me / Inside out / And round and round" This could be the tune of last month in the Dutch EV market, with 717 units registered, sales were down 94% regarding the previous month, due to the incentives-derived stampede of December, the last month for PHEVs to have access to company car incentives.So one would expect yet another sales hangover like in previous years, but actually registrations weren't that catastrophic, as the 717 units represent a 27% increase YoY, with BEVs doubling sales regarding January 2016, with market share reaching 1.4%.Will we see this market shift away for good from plug-in hybrids? If that were to happen, it would be a case study on how incentives can influence plug-in markets.

Looking at the top Best Sellers, one can see that the best selling plug-in hybrid shows up only in Seventh (Volvo XC90 PHEV, 46 units), we have to go back to the Middle Ages (2011) to see the Best Selling PHEV this down in the ranking.An eventful surprise shows up in Number One, with the Hyundai Ioniq Electric starting the year in the leadership, with 95 units, the Korean first #1 outside its home market, followed by three long range BEVs (Some more than others...), which once again proves that range matters.

Pl

Model

Sales

1

Hyundai Ioniq Electric

95

2

BMW i3 *

88

3

Renault Zoe

70

4

Tesla Model S

65

4

Nissan Leaf

63

Looking elsewhere, while PHEV models should still have a significant portion of units that were ordered for December but were only registered in January, it is interesting to see some all-electric models coming alive, like the eight Citröen C-Zero registered, its best result in four years, or the 70 units of the Renault Zoe, its best result in three years, no doubt due to the deliveries of the ZE 40 version.

In the manufacturers ranking, things aren't that upside down as in the models ranking, last year runner-up, BMW, adapted quite well to the new environment, besides extensive, BMW's lineup proves that is also able to play in both sides of the field (BEV and PHEV) with equal efficiency, starting the year in the leadership with 17% share, followed by Tesla (16%) and Hyundai (13%).